National Sickie Day?

Hot on the heels of Blue Monday - see Get Rid of Monday Blues Forever - comes 'National Sickie Day'.

February 1st is reputed to be a day of extremely high staff absence as people struggle at the hands of winter illnesses, fatigue, uninspiring weather and seasonal mood swings.

So what can businesses do to minimise the likelihood of employees favouring staying at home over coming into the office?

We are in the fortunate position of being able to visit many different organisations and observe what makes a productive and dynamic office environment that people want to spend time in.

Here are three aspects of successful organisations that stand out:

1) Energy

People want to spend time in an environment that energises them. An office that is a hive of productive activity encourages employees in each day. An atmosphere of lethargy will quickly turn them away.

2) Knowledge

Most people find it stimulating to learn and develop themselves. If staff leave each day feeling that they've learnt something new they'll not only make sure they don't miss a day at work, but they'll also arrive each day with a positive and motivated mindset.

3) Inspiration

People appreciate spending time in inspiring surroundings, interacting with like-minded people, sharing a common purpose and working on projects that have an impact.

So if you'd like to ensure that your staff are always motivated to show up for work and give 100% while they're there, take a look around and see what you can do to improve in these three areas. Think about how you can make your office a great place to work and you'll have no problem attracting great people, day in, day out.

If you'd like further inspiration on how keeping your colleagues fit and healthy will help reduce absenteeism, take a look at this post: How Fit is Your Office

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Reasons Why Corporate Wellbeing Programmes Work

We completed a wellbeing programme for one of our clients this afternoon. We reviewed the progress that participants made during the programme and awarded prizes to those who had been most successful.

The entire group made a fantastic effort to engage in their wellbeing and think about the behaviour changes that would really make a difference to their personal and professional lives. Below is a summary of the changes they made, and the benefits they experienced by making these changes. It’s quite a long list and it illustrates brilliantly how effective wellbeing programmes like this can be.

It makes you think how great it would be to work in an organisation full of people like this operating in an environment where everyone is thinking about how they look after themselves and their colleagues, and all are experiencing positive, tangible results from just a little extra focus on this key area of their lives.

Consider how results like these would affect your organisation and the people within it, and if you’re in a position to help set up wellbeing initiatives, think about how you can put them in place sooner rather than later. There’s nothing to be gained by delaying results as positive as the ones we witnessed today.

Changes the group made:

· Increased exercise

· Increased fruit intake

· Increased vegetable intake

· Decreased coffee intake

· Design of a wellbeing programme for their team

· Increased nuts and seeds as snacks

· Reduced consumption of biscuits

· Implementation of regular eating habits

· Drink more water

· No more skipping meals

· Thinking about the relationship between food and energy

· Taking breakfast regularly

· Reduced alcohol consumption

· Applying a finishing time at work

· Adopting a more positive attitude at home

· Managing technology such as email and telephone in a more productive way

· Reduced smoking

· Stopped smoking

· Taking short breaks through the day

· Reduced consumption of cakes / sugary / fatty snacks

· Increased ‘me’ time

· Decreased weekly working hours

· More time for reading

· Adopted personal food strategy

· Actively managed sleep routine – quality and quantity

· Block out time for self and team reflections

· Taken up a new sport / activity

· Created a healthy snack routine

· Joined the gym with friends

· Reduced TV time

· Increased family time

· Changed portion size of meals and snacks

· Started taking children to school

Benefits experienced by making these changes:

· Feel healthy again

· Feel slimmer and fitter

· Family following good example

· Colleagues following effective leadership

· More time for family / friends

· Quality time with family

· Increased free time

· Better quality relaxation time

· Reduced stress levels

· Feel more relaxed

· Feel Calmer

· Increased energy

· More consistent energy through the day including evening

· Weight loss of up to 5kg

· Improved patience / tolerance

· Control of blood pressure

· Reduced stress, not shouting in the office

· Feel fresher

· Feel more in control

· Positive impact at work and at home

· Smile more

· Feel less nervous

· Better balance between work and personal

· It feels good

· Lightest I’ve been in 5 years

· I like being fit

· Feel more human

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Get Rid of Monday Blues Forever

Yesterday was the day known as 'Blue Monday' - the most depressing day of the year. The day when the combination of bad weather, holiday credit card bills and the long time left until pay day gets the better of us and we decide to hibernate and avoid going in to work.

According to comments in a feature in HR Magazine though, absence rates are expected to be lower this year.

One element of the work that we do with our clients is to enable staff to put in place wellness strategies that mean they're well equipped to deal with all the low points of their working year, able to manage their mental and physical state appropriately and ride out any periods that are generally recognised as being challenging.

This week we reconvened a programme with a group of Executives that we'd worked with in November and asked them what changes they'd made to their wellness in the last 2 months and what difference these changes had made to their professional and personal lives. In other words, what changes have they made that will help them perform well all year round in spite of seasonal hot spots like Blue Monday.

The top 5 changes were:

• Take more exercise
• Drink more water
• Make a plan for sleep, rest and recovery
• Eat more healthily throughout the day
• Make time for me and my family

The top 5 benefits of making these changes were:

• Increased energy
• A sense of calm
• Feeling fitter
• Feeling less irritable
• A reassuring sense of balance

Nothing earth shattering there you'll notice, it's all pretty much common sense.

The beauty of a good wellbeing programme however is that groups like this one are living with the benefits of making these changes, not just thinking about making these changes.

Good wellness helps people take the right action, quickly and effectively. Click here to read more on how some companies have already achieved great results with wellness programmes.

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Healthy Workforce, Healthy Company

I read an interesting piece recently on how the right wellbeing initiatives can help your company stand out in the areas of:

• Culture

• Engagement

• Strategic Thinking

Reading this report highlights yet again how crucial it is to spend time developing a company wide approach to wellbeing.

Click here to read more on how some companies have already achieved great results with wellbeing programmes.

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Is Your Organisation Fighting Fit?

Data published today by the Ministry of Defence reveals that one in five members of the British army's infantry is unfit to fight on the front line. You can read one report on the data here.

It makes you think that if this is the case for an organisation as vital as the Army, how do other organisations fare with it comes to having everyone in their ranks fighting fit?

Can you be sure that your business is full of people ready for action and in the best shape of their lives?

It's very easy to find out what state your staff are in by setting up some brief health screenings or lifestyle assessments. In just a few minute you can uncover the health of the business and this will enable you to research specific initiatives that will help those feeling under par get back on track, and encourage everyone else to sharpen up their physical and mental performance.

Such initiatives needn't cost a fortune and they can change the course of individual lives and positively influence the performance of a business for the long-term.

If you can ensure you have the right people in your business and all are fully fit and focused on the opportunities they face, your business is in the best possible position to succeed.

To optimise energy and performance in your business visit The Tonic website

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